About Me

I am a lawyer in Melfort, Saskatchewan, Canada who enjoys reading, especially mysteries. Since 2000 I have been writing personal book reviews. This blog includes my reviews, information on and interviews with authors and descriptions of mystery bookstores I have visited. I strive to review all Saskatchewan mysteries. Other Canadian mysteries are listed under the Rest of Canada. As a lawyer I am always interested in legal mysteries. I have a separate page for legal mysteries. Occasionally my reviews of legal mysteries comment on the legal reality of the mystery. You can follow the progression of my favourite authors with up to 15 reviews. Each year I select my favourites in "Bill's Best of ----". As well as current reviews I am posting reviews from 2000 to 2011. Below my most recent couple of posts are the posts of Saskatchewan mysteries I have reviewed alphabetically by author. If you only want a sentence or two description of the book and my recommendation when deciding whether to read the book look at the bold portion of the review. If you would like to email me the link to my email is on the profile page.

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Church of Spies by Mark Riebling

(21. – 863.) Church of Spies by Mark Riebling – A grand spy thriller that
happens to be a work of non-fiction. Sub-titled The Pope’s Secret War Against Hitler the book explores the role
played by the Catholic Church in the German Resistance to the Nazi’s before and
during WW II.

Pope Pius XII has been praised and
criticized for his actions and inactions during WW II. John Cornwall in Hitler’s Pope was among the critical.

Riebling portrays the Pope as
willing and ready to speak out against the Nazis but restrained by the German
Catholic Church.

Within Germany the Catholic
cardinals and bishops thought it counter-productive to have the Pope protesting
Nazi actions against the Jews for the Nazis already saw the Church as their
enemy. Those leaders expected reprisals that would not just be limited to the
Church. When Dutch bishops spoke out against Jewish deportations from the
Netherlands there was a deportation of 80,000 Jews. Furthermore, they believed
the Pope would, as an outsider, be considered as interfering in German politics.

In 1942 a German priest, Father
Leiber convinced Pius, not to publish a public protest:

The pope would do better to keep a public silence and do
whatever he could in secret. Pius handed the pages to Leiber, who threw them
into the kitchen fireplace and watched them burn.

Yet the most important reason for
public silence was the part being played by the Church in German Resistance to
Hitler. There is abundant documentation in the book that Church clergy and lay
persons were important members of the Resistance.

Plotters inside Germany sought
secure means to liase with the nations fighing the Nazis.Led by Admiral Canaris of the German Abwehr
they sought to use the Catholic Church’s reliable and secret means of
communications between Germany and Rome.

The Church has always maintained its
private means of communications to and from Rome.

While the Nazis did achieve some
penetration of the Church the Pope continued to have trusted agents and
couriers that kept communications flowing.

The Vatican knew the Nazis would
seek to infilitrate it and was wary of Nazi spies. In scenes that would seem
implausible in a Hollywood thriller meetings were held in a crypt at St.
Peter’s where excavations were being done to see if the grave of St. Peter was
beneath an altar. In the depths of the great Basilica plots were refined and
information assessed.

What startled me was the direct
participation of Catholic priests and lay people in the plots against Hitler.
There were two planned coups that faltered at the last moment that preceeded
the assassination attempt in the summer of 1944.

In all the plots the Pope had given
his blessing and approval while the consipirators kept his name from the
documents should the plots fail. Had they succeeded the Pope was ready to offer
assistance in mediation and peace talks.

In most great ventures there are
little known heroes. Joseph Muller is among the least known characters of WW
II. He was the key man for the Pope in Germany on connections with the German
Resistance. My next post will further discuss this amazing man.

In his work he was greatly aided by
a network of Bavarian Jesuits.

The plotters wanted to be known as
representatives of Decent Germany.

I was intrigued by the theological
justifications for the killing of Hitler. While the Catholic Church had
developed moral reasoning on the killing of tyrants centuries ago the
Protestant Churches of German did not have a comparable analysis which hampered
those plotters who were Protestant.

Count Claus von Stauffenberg, the
day before he attempted to assassinate Hitler went to confession and possibly
sought a special blessing of the Last Rites because of the anticipated danger
to his life.

When the plot failed the
investigations and punishments were brutally conducted. How the Catholic
participants faced the SS interrogators was profound and inspiring. We do not
think often of modern martyrs.

While Pius, for the sake of the
Church, was discreet the records clearly show he approved of the Church’s
participation in the plots against Hitler which meant the Church was
sanctioning his assassination.

While the coups were worthy causes they
were and are a perilous path for a Church to engage so directly in violent
government overthrow. Riebling sums up the dilemma:

In war the Vatican tried to stay neutral. Because the pope
represented Catholics of all nations, he had to appear unbiased. Taking sides
would compel some Catholics to betray their country, and others their faith.

Riebling is not going to convince
those who condemn Pius that he played a significant role in challenging the
Nazi regime but his secret actions were far more significant than I had ever
realized. The Catholic Church was the leading support of the German Resistance
who conspired against Hitler and the Nazis.

6 comments:

It's really interesting, Bill, to learn about the Catholic Church's role in the Resistance as well as other aspects of the Anti-Hitler movement. The world had several quiet heroes and villains that we don't know much about, and it's always fascinating to learn what went on secretly. It sounds as though the book's well-researched, too - always a plus for me.

That's very interesting, Bill, especially considering the amount of criticism there has been of the Catholic church's actions (or lack of) during the war. You obviously found it a convincing and well-argued case...?